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This document provides guidelines and policies for graduate education (licentiate, Ph.D.) adopted by the Department of Computer Science and Electronics (IDE) at Mälardalen University. It is intended to be a complementary document to the Handbook of Graduate Studies at MdH. It is an active document which may be updated - check the latest date of update at the top! The latest version will at all times reside at http://www.ide.mdh.se/phd/Ph.D-Guidelines.html
These guidelines are adapted to graduate students who are formally enrolled locally at MdH. Some graduate students are still formally enrolled in a programme for graduate education at some other university. These are students who enrolled before the local programme at IDE existed. For these students, the following applies, in addition to the procedures enforced by the university of enrollment: the individual study plan (and its subsequent revisions) must be submitted to the central director of graduate studies at UFo when requested, and an electronic copy must then be emailed to the director of graduate studies at IDE. Such a student must also have at least one assistant advisor who is affiliated with IDE. All other parts of these guidelines apply, as long as they are not in direct conflict with the rules of the programme of enrollment.
A graduate student is formally accepted by the NT Faculty Board. (The formal qualifications for eligibility are stated in the general syllabus for computer science and engineering (allmänna studieplanen för datavetenskap) and the general syllabus for electronics (allmänna studieplanen för elektronik). A formal application must be made. It must contain:
Forms, and templates for study plans, are found here. See also our quick guide how to enter the programme.
The application, including all documents according to above, should be submitted to the director of graduate studies at IDE.
Note that acceptance as graduate student at IDE, and employment at IDE, are two different things. The concerned lab leader and the head of IDE must agree to any employment, e.g. on a "doktorandtjänst".
The tentative advisory committee and the student select suitable courses and agree on a tentative thesis topic. The study plan must agree with the general syllabus for computer science and engineering (allmänna studieplanen för datavetenskap) or the general syllabus for electronics (allmänna studieplanen för elektronik) at the department. It should furthermore conform to the format in Section 7.1 in Handbook of Graduate Studies. The web site for individual study plans shall be used. It is found here.)
The study plan should be revised at least annually, in conjunction with a "planeringssamtal" (discussion where the forthcoming research education is planned), and the progress of the student should be evaluated against the plan. A revision is typically demanded by the central director of graduate studies at UFO at the end of each spring. A paper copy of the revised plan must then be signed and submitted to the central director of graduate studies. An electronic copy of the revised plan should also be emailed to the director of graduate studies at IDE for archival purposes. Of course, nothing prevents more frequent revisions of the plan: it is supposed to be used actively, as a planning instrument, by student and advisor.
Each student has an advisory committee consisting of a main advisor and one or more assistant advisors: the individual study plan should contain a list of the people in the committee. The main advisor, who must have the competence level of docent or be professor in the area of study, will carry the ultimate scientific responsibility and authority. Assistant advisors must hold a Ph.D. in the area or have the corresponding competence. It may be the case that a assistant advisor in practice is doing the main advising: in that case, this advisor is called "de facto-advisor". The existence of a de facto-advisor does not relieve the formal main advisor from the main responsibility for the studies of the graduate student. All assistant advisors need not be affiliated with MdH: in particular, it can sometimes be advantageous to appoint external assistant advisors who have specialist competence not found locally. However, it is recommended that at least one assistant advisor is affiliated with the same department as the graduate student.
An industrial graduate student (see Section 3) should have an assistant advisor at the company of employment, who is responsible for the student's graduate studies from the company's point of view, and can act as contact person at the company.
A student that transfers from another PhD. programme must do two things: check a box on the application form, and quit the old programme (unless you have a strong reason to be in both, but then you will typically not be allowed to transfer course credits and such).
See also the Handbook of Graduate Studies at MdH, Chapter 4.6.
Students of two categories may be accepted: internal students combine their study with a "Ph.D-position" (doktorandtjänst) or similar and are financially supported by the department; external students are not supported financially by the department. Besides their different employment situations there is no formal difference: students of both categories are admitted to the same program and can obtain the same degrees.
An important category of external students are industrial graduate students. These are graduate students who conduct their graduate study (or parts of their studies) as employed by some external organisation (typically a company). The exact format may vary, but an activity level of at least 50% is strongly recommended, as is to maximise synergy between the research/graduate education and the "ordinary duties" in the external organisation. For industrial graduate students, the study plan, as well as its annual revisions, should be approved by a responsible person in the external organisation. Typically, this is the assistant advisor for the student at the company.
The following milestones are strongly recommended. The timetable fits students with 80% graduate studies (= 5 years real-time studies), for students with other activity levels the timetable should be adjusted accordingly.
A graduate student should take a licentiate degree unless there is sufficient evidence showing that the duration of Ph.D studies will be considerably shortened by not taking a licentiate exam. The material in the licentiate thesis can be reused in the Ph.D. thesis, and the course credits for the licentiate degree also count for the Ph.D. degree.
The general syllabus for computer science and engineering (allmänna studieplanen för datavetenskap) and the general syllabus for electronics (allmänna studieplanen för elektronik) gives some very general guidelines about publishability of Licentiate and Ph.D. theses. A rule of thumb says that a licentiate thesis should be based on three papers (publishable in international workshops or conferences), where the candidate is the main contributor. A Ph.D. thesis should be based on some more papers, whereof at least one should be publishable in an international journal. These rules are, however, not binding, and the nature of the topic or the thesis work can motivate a different number of papers. It is even possible to defend a thesis that is completely unpublished. On the other hand, previous publication of papers in reviewed contexts is a quality measure that can be taken into account during the defence. A candidate defending an unpublished thesis will have to prepare for a very close scrutinization of the thesis work.
Ultimately, the main advisor has the responsibility that the defended thesis is of sufficient quality. Having part or all of the thesis published beforehand is one way to make this more likely.
Salaries for "doktorandtjänst" will be connected directly to the achieved milestones. Presently these three steps are used by IDE:
Graduate students are normally expected to assist in lecturing, exercises, etc. for undergraduate students. Other duties at the department may include: advising of other graduate students, writing proposals to help fund new (and continuing) students, presentations to visiting researchers (and the public), membership in administrative groups (e.g., network planning). For a student with "doktorandtjänst" the amount of duties should normally be in the order of 20% of the total time, and is not allowed to exceed this limit when averaged over the duration of the position. For adjuncts who are enrolled as graduate students the goal is that department duties, including teaching, should be on the level of 50% but whether this goal can be met depends on factors such as availability of research funding, the need for teachers at the department, etc.
Students with "doktorandtjänst" should normally not have to take on the main responsibility for courses, although in exceptional cases this may be necessary. Adjuncts, on the other hand, are primarily teachers and can thus be expected also to work as course leaders.
It is important that graduate students who conduct teaching as part of their department duties are given the appropriate pedacogical education. It is the responsibility of the main advisor to ensure this. The main advisor should consider allowing a suitable amount of course credits for this education into the exam.
Registration of courses is done through LADOK. The main advisor is responsible for this. For graduate students at IDE enrolled in programmes elsewhere, registration of courses takes place at the university where the student is formally enrolled, according to the routines pertinent to this programme.
A student should meet an advisor regularly, preferably at least once a week, to discuss progress and related problems. A main advisor who expects to be absent for more than 3 months is required to appoint an acting main advisor for the student during that time. The committee as a whole decides on major changes in the direction of the student's work and in the individual study plan. The committee divides the other advising tasks among its members as it sees fit. However, the main advisor carries the ultimate scientific responsibility and authority.
Once a year the director of graduate studies arranges an obligatory review meeting with all advisors. During this meeting the progress of all graduate students is presented and evaluated against the expected development. In particular, students lagging considerably behind their time-plan, or having other problems, should be identified and discussed. The main advisors are responsible for providing up-to-date status information for their graduate students, and should prepare a statement of progress for each student to the meeting.